There were 40 National Chef of The Year semi-finalists this year but the judges managed to select their top eight who will now compete in the National Chef of the Year 2016 final at the Restaurant Show on Tuesday, October 6 at Olympia, London.

The finalists are: Andrew Ditchfield, Pastry Chef, House of Commons; Paul Foster, Head Chef, Mallory Court; Adam Handling, Head Chef, Restaurant Adam Handling; Mark Kempson, Head Chef, Kitchen W8; Luciano Lucioli, Head Chef, Marks & Spencers Headquarters (Lusso - CH&Co); Lawrence McCarthy, Sous Chef, The Ledbury Restaurant; Martin Carabott, Sous Chef, The Royal Automobile Club and Larry Jayasekara, Sous Chef, Gordon Ramsay Holding.

This year, the brief is to create an innovative menu for four people, focusing on technical skills, seasonality and sustainably sourced ingredients. The semi-finalists competed in the heats at Sheffield College on Wednesday, June 11 and today at Le Cordon Bleu cookery school in London.

David Mulcahy, Vice President of the Craft Guild of Chefs and organiser of the competition said: “Today's semi final has been very positive and it had a great buzz as well as a lot of pressure and anxiety.

"This is not just a competition, it's very much a training and development tool too. It's great to see such passionate and motivated chefs putting themselves and their names on the block - not everyone would do that." 

This year all the finalists will have the opportunity to work with a mentor to help them achieve the best result possible in the final. The mentoring panel is made up of well respected chefs from across the UK, including previous winners of the title.

The Mentor Day is designed to focus the minds of the finalists on the task ahead and will include workshops, masterclasses, meet the sponsor sessions and the big reveal of the mystery basket. It will take place on Tuesday, September 15 at Unilever Innovation Kitchen in Leatherhead.

Winning National Chef of the Year has helped establish the careers of chefs such as Gordon Ramsay, David Everitt-Matthias, Mark Sargeant, Steve Love, Simon Hulstone, Hrishikesh Desai and last year’s winner Russell Bateman. The esteemed panel of judges will be chaired by Clare Smyth, chef patron at the three Michelin starred Restaurant Gordon Ramsay.

Speaking at the semi-final she said: "This competition is tremendously stressful and a lot of effort goes into it. There's been some phenomenal cooking and some tremendously simple but delicious plates of food. "It's great to see the same chefs coming back year after year, we are seeing people grow and that's phenomenal."

For more information visit: www.craftguildofchefs.org

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